No real expectations from Railway Budget, says CPI

Communist Party of India (CPI) leader, D. Raja on Tuesday questioned how realistic it was to have bullet trains at this juncture and also indicated that he has no great expectations from the Railway Budget.

"Actually speaking Modi government has created big expectations as far as its governance is concerned, its budget are concerned. But I have no great expectations from this budget because the way they are talking about bullet train whether it is realistic at this point of time, that needs to be understood," Raja told ANI.

"We are not opposed to bullet train but what about other trains, the security provided to women, strengthening of exisiting infrastructure, gauge conversion, track modernisation. Without addressing the exisiting serious problems that railways are facing today, to keep talking about bullet trains is just an attempt to showcase that Modi government through bullet train," Raja said.

Union Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda will present the maiden rail budget of the Modi Government today.

The Railway Budget is expected to give a big thrust on plans for a high-speed train network and the high-profile Golden Quadri-lateral Rail Network-linking the four metro cities. The Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor project could be the first off the block to make a headstart.

Among the other likely highlights of the budget would be increasing the speed of elite Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains to 160-200 kmph.

Gowda is also likely to announce pilot project for introduction of automatic closing of doors in Shatabdi coaches and EMU coaches in Mumbai suburban train as safety measures for passengers to prevent any falls from running trains.

Also, the Rail Budget is expected to revamp the railway system.